The present disclosure is directed to an advanced planning system, more particularly to an advanced production planning system, and even more particularly, to an advanced production planning system for use in an automotive production operation. With respect thereto, large production companies may have complex and varied operational and planning needs. For example, different departments may be required to receive and forecast sales demands, purchase necessary production parts, arrange for the transport of the production parts, produce finished products from the production parts, and arrange for the transport of the finished products to sales locations. As a result of the size and geographical diversity of these various departments, personnel working in each of the various departments generally work autonomously from the other departments. Further, personnel staffing each of the departments may work autonomously from other personnel staffing the same department.
Assuming an automotive production operation as the large production company, a sales department may be staffed with sales analysts and other staff that respond to an existing vehicle sales demand and forecast a future sales demand. Though the sales analysts and other sales staff all work under the sales department, the sales department may have various sub-departments, each tasked with responding to separate existing vehicle sales demands and forecasting separate future sales demands. The sales sub-departments may be geographically or operationally separate from each other so as to operate on a nearly autonomous level with respect to each other. Similarly, logistics and purchasing departments may also have various sub-departments that operate on a nearly autonomous level with respect to each other for several of the same reasons that the various sales sub-departments do.
With respect to the production of vehicles, several production or manufacturing facilities are likely to exist, with each of the production facilities charged with producing certain product types or vehicles for shipment to certain geographical areas in response to existing and forecasted sales demands. The various production facilities, due to geographical and operational reasons, may operate autonomously from each other. Further, the production facilities may also operate autonomously from the sales, logistics, and purchasing departments.
Accordingly, sales department personnel determine and enter existing and forecasted sales demands, which are then handed-off to the purchasing and logistics departments and the production facilities. Each constituent member may then acts autonomously to purchase necessary parts, transport production parts and finished vehicles, and produce the vehicles. As such, planning associated with the various levels of production is undertaken by each of the constituent members, and often by sub-departments of each of the constituent members, separately.
In sum, conventional large-scale production operations lack integration between the various departments and facilities charged with producing and selling the vehicles or other products. This lack of integration precludes the creation of an integrated production plan among the various constituent members, leading each constituent member to create a separate plan based on a handed-off plan. Though each constituent member may establish an optimized plan for their needs, such a system precludes the creation of a plan that optimizes planning across the entire system. Moreover, as the planning for any one department or facility is predicated on receiving a higher-level plan from another department or facility, planning may need to be undertaken for a finite time period, such as one-month, rather than for a longer time range. In view of the above circumstances, many production planning inefficiencies exist which preclude the ability to establish a flexible and integrated production plan across the various departments of a production operation.